MSP Joins Vistive Bandwagon

NEW YORK - Feb 7/06 - SNS -- Minnesota Soybean Processors will process Monsanto Company's Vistive low-linolenic soybeans in 2006 and market the resulting oil.

The company will contract up to 50,000 acres with growers in southwestern Minnesota, northwestern Iowa and southeastern South Dakota for up to 50,000 acres of Vistive soybean production.

Minnesota Soybean Processors will pay a premium to producers who grow Vistive soybeans under contract, then it will crush and sell the processed soybean oil to food companies. The beans contain less than 3% linolenic acid, while traditional soybeans contain around 8%. Lowering levels of that fatty acid resulted in "a more stable soybean oil, with less need for hydrogenation.

"Because soybeans with a lower linolenic acid level reduce the need for partial hydrogenation, their application in processed soybean oils will reduce the presence of trans fats in processed soybean oil," Monsanto explains. It expects around 500,000 acres of the variety will be grown this year.